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CEO Activism in 2018: The Tech Effect

Wednesday 26 September, 2018

Weber Shandwick, in partnership with KRC Research, released CEO Activism: The Tech Effect, a follow-up to The Purposeful CEO from earlier this year. The 2018 research is the third installment of our CEO activism series, following The Dawn of CEO Activism (2016) and High Noon in the C-Suite (2017). The Tech Effect surveyed technology professionals such as software/application developers and software engineers in seven global markets: Brazil, Canada, China, India, Mexico, the UK and the U.S. The research finds high levels of positivity among technology professionals in all markets toward CEOs who speak out on hotly debated current issues.

82 per cent of tech professionals have a favourable opinion of CEO activists and 81 per cent think CEOs have a responsibility to speak up about issues that are important to society. These figures are in high contrast to the last study, The Purposeful CEO, which found that 38 per cent of American consumers are favourable toward CEO activism and 39 per cent think CEOs have a responsibility to speak out.

Female technology professionals hold more positive views of CEO activism compared to their male peers. These women are more likely to agree that CEOs need to defend company values, have a more favourable opinion overall of CEO activism and are more likely to feel CEOs have a responsibility to speak out.